Forget H&R Block Password? Please Pay 20 Minutes

So we regularly do our taxes with H&R Block’s Online “At Home” program. Depending on our situation we’ve used everything from H&R Block At Home Basic, to Deluxe, to Premium. Their system is comprehensive, convenient and a seamless operation – when it works right.

This year (for 2011 taxes) started with us forgetting our password. I was pretty sure I knew our login but I mean, you use the H&R Block web site maybe twice a year? More like once actually. At tax time. So I could not remember what the password was. After 3 attempts it locked me out and said I had to wait 20 minutes. So I went through the reset password process. It emailed me a password reset link after verifying my social security number, birthdate, and zip code. I clicked the link and entered a new password. It brought me to the login screen, I was like SWEET!

When I attempted to login it said I was locked out due to too many password attempts and I had to wait (another new) 20 minutes! So I guess it started a new 20 minute window with this new login attempt. I found the phone number (after much weaving through the web site) for customer service and called. They closed at 9pm Central. IN THE MIDDLE OF TAX SEASON LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY FROM THE DEADLINE!?!?

I hung up. I was frustrated and honestly thought okay I’ve used H&R Block Taxcut/At Home for decades. But if this is the way they’re going to treat customers maybe I should try Turbo Tax or some of the various others out there. I forced myself to think calmly.

After some more paging through the hrblock.com site I found a technical support online chat. It said they couldn’t help with tax concerns but they could assist with issues related to the hrblock.com services themselves. I got a representative and explained the holding pattern I was in, and my level of upset at this point. She said due to security you HAVE to wait 20 minutes and not even a representative could override that. I asked for a supervisor and said I could verify all my info in the account, and repeated that hello – I reset the password successfully so obviously I know who I am in relation to the account. A supervisor came into the chat room and repeated verbatim that security required a 20 minute cooling off period. Supervisors don’t even have access to unlock an account. I once again expressed my utter disgust at this silly policy and at this point realized it was just about the 20 minute mark.

I asked the supervisor to provide some compensation for the inconvenience. I always do. I mean I’ve been using and referring others to H&R Block since the late ’90s. A coupon, a % off, a “key code” which is H&R Block’s terminology for a gift certificate. Anything. At first the supervisor said they don’t do that type of thing. I said listen you clearly have a dumb policy in place which shows clients that you a) don’t have any control over anything even though you’re a supervisor b) can’t use common sense and simple verification methods to unlock a wrongly locked account during prime tax season. I said my providing feedback on this alone was worth something to retain me as a customer. She hesitantly gave me a $10 key code to use against the costs of my taxes once I was finally able to login.

5 Responses to “Forget H&R Block Password? Please Pay 20 Minutes”

Capital One is currently notorious for its Customer No-Service (Thank you, Clark Howard). If you ever run into a problem and feel like you’re getting nowhere with regular customer service and supervisors or managers, you can call Executive Relations. This is a hidden department (until now – whoops!) and its staff can actually think outside of the box and get you some help. It’s the equivalent to Capital One President’s Office or Corporate Office. Call 800-955-1455.

I can’t even get this useless site to send me a password reset email AFTER THE 20 min. waste of time and energy which did nothing to cool me down (as in cool down period ? Are you effin kidding me ? ). I used the CD software thinking it would be easier than online filing. it’s not, they should pay me to use it, it is so useless .

I bet they blamed it or would blame it on your spam filters or junk mail settings. Ugh. What’s sad and aggravating is that you’re writing 2 years after our initial post. So H&R Block doesn’t really care to acknowledge feedback and correct its errors.

Alot of customer service problems like this are handled on social media these days. It seems strange to air your very personal problems in front of the creep down the street and the weird uncle, but it’s reality.

H&R Block does alot of complaints resolution on Twitter. Their Twitter is @HRBlockAnswers. Before you go there, be aware of something. The way they run their profile on Twitter is unclear and gives you the impression you are either on the wrong page or you are never going to get a response.

The last tweet that is publicly viewable on their Twitter page is from April 17, 2014.
–H&R Block Care Team ‏@HRBlockAnswers 17 Apr 2014
@StonyFields If a return is rejected, if you refile by 4/20/14 it will be considered timely filed.^WH

Looks like a stale profile right? Dead since tax time 2014? Wrong. Go to https://twitter.com/HRBlockAnswers/with_replies and you see 5h ago was the last tweet they had with an H&R Block customer named @curtisky from Whittier Law School.